Categories of persons covered by the
system:This
system covers persons who allegedly fail to meet our qualifications to serve as
a claimant’s representative, as provided by the Social Security Act or
regulations relating to representation of claimants and beneficiaries before us.It includes representatives alleged to have
violated the provisions of the Social Security Act or our regulations relating
to representation of claimants and beneficiaries, representatives whom we have
found to have committed such violations and have disqualified or suspended, and
representatives we have investigated, but have not disqualified or suspended
because we resolved the matter without an action to disqualify or suspend the
representative or because we found that a violation did not occur.

Categories of records in the
system:As
applicable, thesystem will contain
information about persons seeking to represent our claimants as well as
representatives who have represented claimants and beneficiaries before
us.For example, we collect name, date
of birth, Social Security number (SSN), representative identification number,
home or business address(es), telephone and facsimile (fax) numbers, email
address, and type of representative (e.g., attorney, non-attorney, eligible
direct pay non-attorney).

The system will
also contain information about the representative’s legal standing and business
affiliations.For example, we collect
status of the representative (e.g., suspended, disqualified), bar, court, and Federal
program or agency admission information (e.g., year admitted, license number,
present standing, and disciplinary history), copies of all documentation
resulting from our investigation and actions taken due to violations of the
Social Security Act and regulations relating to the representative, and
employer identification number.The
system will also maintain relevant claimant and beneficiary information.

The following are examples of information covered
by this system of records relating to the representation of claimants and
beneficiaries:documentation resulting
from our investigation or actions taken due to violations of the Social
Security Act or our regulations; documentation relating to any request for
recognition or reinstatement that a non-recognized person or disqualified or
suspended representative files with us; documentation pertaining to hearings on
charges of alleged violations of the Social Security Act or our regulations;
and representation attestations made and information provided on our paper and
electronic forms.

The system may
also contain documentation pertaining to Appeals Council reviews of the
decisions rendered in hearings on charges of violations of the Social Security
Act or our regulations, or of requests for reinstatement to practice as a
claimant’s representative before us; copies of notifications of a
representative’s disqualification or suspension or a person’s non-recognition; documentation
pertaining to any legal or administrative action that a disqualified or suspended
representative, or non-recognized person brings against us; and documentation
of any disclosures made pursuant to the routine uses in this system of records.

Authority for maintenance of the system: Sections
206(a) and 1631(d)(2) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. §§ 406(a) and
1383(d)(2)).

Purpose(s): The Representative
Disqualification, Suspension, and Non-Recognition Information File system of
records provides us real-time access to information key to
decisionmaking in the disqualified or suspended representative business
process.For example, the records
provide timely access to information we need to make decisions about whether
persons meet our qualifications to serve as a claimant’s representative and
whether violations of the provisions of the Social Security Act or regulations
relating to representation have previously occurred.

The
records also enable us to more efficiently investigate alleged administrative
or criminal violations; take action against representatives; respond to the
Appeals Council when a representative has requested reinstatement; provide
detailed notice of, and information on, cases in which we have disqualified or
suspended a representative; and assist the Department of Justice in Federal
court litigation, including that which relates to our decision to disqualify or
suspend a representative or not recognize a person as a claimant’s
representative.

Routine uses of records covered by the
Representative Disqualification, Suspension, and Non-Recognition Information Filesystem of records system, including
categories of users and the purposes of such uses: Routine
use disclosures are indicated below; however, we will not disclose any
information defined as “return or return information” under 26 U.S.C. § 6103 of
the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) unless authorized by the IRC, the Internal
Revenue Service (IRS), or IRS regulations.

1.To
applicants for benefits or payments, claimants, and beneficiaries to inform
them that we have disqualified or suspended the representative from further
representation before us or that the person was not recognized as a
representative, and the basis for our action.

2.To
a Federal court, State court, administrative tribunal, or bar disciplinary
authority in the Federal jurisdiction(s) or State(s) in which an attorney is
admitted to practice that we have disqualified or suspended the attorney from
representing claimants or beneficiaries before us and the basis for our action.

3.To
an official or employee of a Federal, State, or local agency that we have
disqualified or suspended a claimant’s representative from representing
claimants and beneficiaries before us, and the basis for our action in order to
permit that agency to perform its official duties related to representation of
parties before that agency.

4.To
any person or entity from which we need information to pursue the investigation
or litigation of any action against a representative, to the extent necessary
to identify the representative about whom the record is maintained, inform the person
or entity of the purpose(s) of the request, and identify the type of
information needed.

5.To
the Department of Justice (DOJ), a court, other tribunal, or another party
before such court or tribunal when:

a)SSA or any of our components;

b)any SSA employee in his or her official
capacity;

c)any SSA employee in his or her individual
capacity when DOJ (or SSA when we areauthorized to do so) has agreed to represent the employee; or

d)the United States, or any agency
thereof when we determine that the litigation is likely to affect the
operations of SSA or any of its components,

is a party to litigation or has
an interest in such litigation, and we determine that the use of such records
by DOJ, the court, other tribunal, or another party before such court or
tribunal is relevant and necessary to the litigation.In each case, however, we must determine that
such disclosure is compatible with the purpose for which we collected the
records.

6.To
DOJ, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Offices of United States Attorneys,
and other Federal law enforcement agencies, for investigation and potential
prosecution of violations of the Social Security Act.

7.To
a congressional office in response to an inquiry from that office made at the
request of the subject of the record or a third party on that person’s behalf.

8.To
the public via our Internet web site located at http://www.socialsecurity.gov that we
have disqualified or suspended a representative from representation before us,
or not recognized a person as a claimant’s representative.

9.To
persons, groups, organizations, or government entities that routinely refer
potential claimants or beneficiaries to attorneys or persons other than
attorneys for the purpose of putting such persons, groups, organizations or
government entities on notice that we have disqualified or suspended a
representative from representation before us, or not recognized a person as a
claimant’s representative.

10.To any person or entity with whom the representative is
affiliated or has indicated that he or she wants to be affiliated in
representing claimants before us, notice that we have disqualified or suspended
the affiliated or potentially affiliated representative from representation
before us, or not recognized that person as a claimant’s representative.

11.To the General Services Administration and the National
Archives and Records Administration (NARA) under 44 U.S.C. §§ 2904 and2906, as amended by the NARA Act, information
that is not restricted from disclosure by Federal law for their use in
conducting records management studies.

12.To the appropriate Federal, State, and local agencies,
entities, and persons when: 1) we suspect or confirm that the security or
confidentiality of information in this system of records has been compromised;
2) we determine that as a result of the suspected or confirmed compromise there
is a risk of harm to economic or property interests, risk of identity theft or
fraud, or harm to the security or integrity of this system or other systems or
programs that rely upon the compromised information; and 3) we determine that
disclosing the information to such agencies, entities, and persons is necessary
to assist in our efforts to respond to the suspected or confirmed compromise and
prevent, minimize, or remedy such harm.We
will use this routine use to respond only to those incidents involving an
unintentional release of our records.

13.To the Office of the President in response to an
inquiry made at the request of thesubject of the record or a third party on that person’s behalf.

14.To student volunteers, persons working under a personal
services contract, and others who are not technically Federal employees, when
they are performing work for us as authorized by law, and they need access to
information in our records in order to perform their assigned duties.

15.To Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies
and private security contractors as appropriate, information as necessary:

a)to enable them to assure the safety of our
employees and customers, and the security of our workplace, and the operation
of our facilities; or

b)to assist investigations or prosecutions with
respect to activities that affect such safety and security or activities that
disrupt the operation of our facilities.

16.To contractors and other Federal agencies, as
necessary, for the purpose of assisting us in the efficient administration of
our programs.We will disclose
information under the routine use only in situations in which we may enter into
a contractual or similar agreement with a third party to assist in
accomplishing an agency function relating to this system of records.

Policies and practices for storing,
retrieving, accessing, retaining, and disposing of records in the system:

Storage: We will store records in this system in paper
and electronic form.

Retrievability: We will retrieve records by SSN,
representative identification number, or alphabetically by the representative’s
name.

Safeguards: We retain paper and electronic files with personal
identifiers in secure storage areas accessible only to our authorized employees
and contractors.We limit access to data
with personal identifiers from this system to only authorized personnel who
have a need for the information in the performance of their official
duties.We annually provide all of our
employees and contractors with appropriate security awareness training that
includes reminders about the need to protect personally identifiable
information and the criminal penalties that apply to unauthorized access to, or
disclosure of, personally identifiable information.See 5 U.S.C. § 552a(i)(l).Employees and contractors with access to
databases maintaining personally identifiable information must sign a sanction
document annually, acknowledging their accountability for inappropriately
accessing or disclosing such information.

Retention and disposal: For purposes of records management
dispositions authority, we follow the NARA
and Department of Defense (DOD) 5015.2 regulations (DOD Design Criteria
Standard for Electronic Records Management Software Applications).We will retain for 25 years records about the
non-recognition of a person, the disqualification or suspension of a
representative, and the investigation of representatives that we did not
suspend or disqualify because we were able to resolve the matter without a
disqualification or suspension.We will
maintain for 2 years from the date of closure those records that indicate we
investigated a representative, but did not disqualify or suspend the
representative because we found that a violation did not occur.We will erase or destroy records in
electronic form and shred records in paper form.

System manager(s) and address(es): Associate General Counsel for General Law,
Office of the General Counsel, Social Security Administration, 6401 Security Boulevard,
Baltimore, MD 21235.Regional Chief
Counsels (see addresses in the System Location section of this notice).

Notification procedures: Persons can determine if this system contains
a record about them by writing to the system manager at the above address and
providing their name, SSN, or other information in this system of records that
will identify them.Persons requesting
notification by mail must include a notarized statement to us to verify their
identity or they must certify in the request that they are the person they
claim to be and understand that the knowing and willful request for, or
acquisition of, a record pertaining to another person under false pretenses is
a criminal offense.

Persons requesting notification of records in
person should provide the same information, as well as provide an identity document,
preferably with a photograph, such as a driver's license.Persons lacking identification documents
sufficient to establish their identity must certify in writing that they are
the person they claim to be and that they understand that the knowing and
willful request for, or acquisition of, a record pertaining to another person
under false pretenses is a criminal offense.

Persons requesting
notification by telephone must verify their identity by providing identifying
information that parallels the information in the record to which notification
is being requested. If we determine that the identifying information the person
provides by telephone is insufficient, the person will be required to submit a
request in writing or in person. If a
person requests information by telephone on behalf of another person, the
subject person must be on the telephone with the requesting person and us in
the same telephone call. We will
establish the subject person’s identity (his or her name, SSN, address, date of
birth, and place of birth, along with one other piece of information, such as
mother's maiden name) and ask for his or her consent to provide information to
the requesting person. These procedures
are in accordance with our regulations (20 C.F.R. §§ 401.40 and 401.45).

Record access procedures: Same as notification procedures. Requesters also should reasonably specify the
record contents they are seeking. These
procedures are in accordance with our regulations (20 C.F.R. § 401.40(c)).

Contesting record procedures: Same as notification procedures. Requesters also should reasonably identify the
record, specify the information they are contesting, and state the corrective
action sought and the reasons for the correction with supporting justification
showing how the record is incomplete, untimely, inaccurate, or irrelevant. These procedures are in accordance with our regulations
(20 C.F.R. § 401.65(a)).

Record source categories: We obtain information covered by this
system of records from existing records we maintain (e.g., the Claims Folder
System, 60-0089), which contain information relating to the representation of
claimants before us.